With the debut of Ahsoka, the newest Star Wars series to hit Disney Plus, it is time to take an inventory of all the various shows that take place in the galaxy far, far away that debuted on the House Mouse’s streaming service.
After We Got This Covered crunched the numbers and ranked every Marvel Disney Plus series by runtime, we found that the total length of each series generally got shorter and shorter, with some exceptions here and there. This made us wonder: is the same thing happening with the Star Wars shows? The comparison particularly piqued our interest when a report surfaced that Ahsoka’s runtime would significantly drop off in episode 3, a pattern that has been occurring with increased frequency for Marvel shows.
While we have yet to confirm this claim since episode 3 of Ahsoka has not been released yet, we decided in the meantime to crunch the numbers for all the various Star Wars shows on Disney Plus so far to see if they are also succumbing to the “Marvel curse.”
Bear in mind, we are only ranking the seasons that debuted on Disney Plus. So don’t expect to see Rebels on here since it originally aired on Disney XD or 1985’s Droids or Ewoks, which both aired on ABC. Any season that is currently in progress, such as Young Jedi Adventures season 1 or Ahsoka season 1, will also be excluded from our list since we don’t know the final runtimes yet. We’re also excluding microseries and shorts — sorry, Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies fans. With that said, here’s our list of every Disney Plus Star Wars season ranked by runtime.
12. Tales of the Jedi Season 1 – 1 hour, 39 minutes
Since Tales of the Jedi is an anthology series following stand-alone, episodic tales of both Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku, it isn’t necessarily surprising to see it at the bottom of our list. With an average episode length of 16 minutes and 30 seconds, it is a breezy experience on par with that of Visionis.
11. Visions Season 2 – 2 hours, 39 minutes
Similar to Tales of the Jedi, Visions is also an anthology series, but with each episode being a completely different animation style, set of characters, and story in the Star Wars universe, making it akin to something like 2003’s The Animatrix. With an overall runtime shorter than season 1 and an average episode length of 17 minutes 40 seconds, season 2 of Visions proves to mostly do its own thing with its vastly varying episode lengths.
10. Visions Season 1 – 2 hours, 46 minutes
Visions season 1 was a breath of fresh air when it dropped on Disney Plus back in the fall of 2021, with the debut being even more memorable than its follow-up to this day. With an average episode length of 18 minutes 27 seconds, the show focuses on quality over quantity, since most of the anime shorts feature breathtakingly unique approaches to animation.
9. Obi-Wan Kenobi – 4 hours, 40 minutes
For fans of Ewan McGregor as a younger Jedi from the prequel trilogy, Obi-Wan Kenobi was a worthy nostalgia rush that added some interesting layers to his character, such as dealing with the remorse of his falling out with his young apprentice-turned-evil-doer, Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker. With an average episode length of 46 minutes and 40 seconds, the show consistently felt like a classic broadcast-style TV miniseries.
8. The Clone Wars Season 7 – 5 hours, 24 minutes
It’s amazing to think how far The Clone Wars has come since its debut as a computer-animated film that did not impress critics back in 2008. Since then, the series of the same name which included the events of the film has come into its own to the point that the final season 7, whose average episode length runs 27 minutes, boasts an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
7. The Mandalorian Season 1 – 5 hours, 31 minutes
The release of The Mandalorian season 1 was an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan, taking the franchise back to the roots of combining the mythos of Westerns and samurai tales, even as the cinematic franchise was struggling to maintain consistency. As an adventure series with an average episode length of 41 minutes and 23 seconds, it truly felt like a worthy narrative for the episodic format rather than being a shelved movie idea retrofitted for TV.
6. The Mandalorian Season 2 – 5 hours, 48 minutes
Season 2 of The Mandalorian was a rock-solid follow-up to the first season that cemented the series as the flagship title in the live-action space when it comes to Star Wars, especially following the critically- hated and all-over-the-place conclusion to the cinematic sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker. With an average episode length of 43 minutes and 30 seconds, The Mandalorian season 2 once again felt like an evolution of the kind of prestige television established on premium cable networks like HBO and AMC a decade prior.
5. The Book of Boba Fett – 5 hours, 48 minutes
The Book of Boba Fett had its moments, most notably the episodes directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and Dave Filoni, but overall, the series fell flat for many people. With an average episode length of 49 minutes and 43 seconds, it also felt like one drawn-out movie similar to Obi-Wan Kenobi, only this time there was quite a bit more filler.
4. The Mandalorian Season 3 – 6 hours
The Mandalorian season 3 is where the beskar armor began to crack for many viewers, even though the series impressively held its own in terms of increasing its runtime compared to past seasons. The 45-minute average episode length once again made it feel worthy of being called a TV show that fits nicely into the hour-long drama format, but simply one of the lesser entries in an otherwise beloved saga, mostly because the finale of season 2 felt like the perfect ending.
3. The Bad Batch Season 2 – 7 hours, 42 minutes
The Bad Batch’s second season once again catered to devoted fans of Star Wars that may even have entertainment value for casual viewers if you’re willing to get lost in the gorgeous visuals and don’t mind some large lore references going over your head. With an average episode length of 28 minutes 53 seconds, the series’ 16 episodes prove a hearty amount of content for binge-watching enthusiasts.
2. The Bad Batch Season 1 – 8 hours, 33 minutes
Dave Filoni’s lore-heavy follow-up to The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, should please fans of the previous shows, especially since it focuses on a group of anti-hero mercenaries who are rejected clones from the Empire. At an average episode length of 32 minutes and 4 seconds, the first season of The Bad Batch exceeds in this regard compared to the second season as well as boasting a longer runtime, overall.
1. Andor Season 1 – 9 hours, 42 minutes
Andor is the most exciting thing to happen to Star Wars in the live-action space since the first season of The Mandalorian, thanks to its inventive spin on the mythos by focusing on a gritty espionage thriller. As the longest Disney Plus series to date and an average episode length of 48 minutes and 30 seconds, Andor fulfills the promise that began with The Mandalorian by bringing a prestige TV approach to the galaxy far, far away.
Overall, what this list illustrates is that Star Wars shows on Disney Plus do not necessarily fall into the same Marvel curse that has been plaguing those series for years. In other words, there is no clear pattern of shows getting shorter and shorter runtimes. In fact, The Mandalorian has been getting longer and longer runtimes with each successive season, including longer average episode lengths. The first season of Andor representing the longest series on our list is also telling since that is a newer show.
With that said, there are some patterns that show the telltale signs of larger criticisms about streaming television in general, such as both The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi feeling like drawn-out movies rather than proper TV shows. It’s also notable that season 7 of The Clone Wars had fewer episodes than the seasons that came before it. Back in its heyday on Cartoon Network, 22 episodes per season was the norm. That is massive compared to season 7’s 12 episodes. However, that could just come with the territory of being on a streaming platform since many series are more truncated nowadays, in general.
We will have to see how Ahsoka shakes out in all of this. However, we don’t necessarily expect any crazy revelations about the runtimes to come to light at this point. Star Wars dodging the Marvel curse on streaming and avoiding the pitfall of showing a consistent pattern of diminishing returns in terms of runtimes just goes to show not every studio within Disney is exactly the same and they all have their idiosyncrasies, for better or worse.
Published: Aug 24, 2023 11:11 am